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Quiz: What if Most of What You Were Taught About
Homeopathy Was Wrong?
[from
Dynamic Legacy:
From Homeopathy to Heilkunst,by Verspoor and Decker]
1. Homeopathy is the name
of the system of restoration to health that Dr. Samuel Hahnemann
created over 200 years ago.
2. Hahnemann was a vitalist,
teaching about the vital force.
3. Hahnemann taught that a
remedy must be selected on the basis of the totality of symptoms.
4. In each case of disease,
the symptoms used to choose the remedy are the presenting symptoms
of the patient.
5. Hahnemann never used
more than one remedy at a time.
6. The use of more than one
remedy at a time per patient is forbidden in the Organon.
7. Homeopathy treats the
patient, not the disease.
8. The goal of homeopathy
is to find the one remedy ("simillimum") that will cure the whole
case.
9. Nosodes should only be
used on the basis of the presenting symptoms or when the
well-indicated remedy has failed.
10. Hahnemann condemned the
use of isopathic remedies.
11. The basis of
Hahnemann's system is constitutional prescribing.
12. Constitutional
prescribing will cure the patient, including the chronic miasms.
13. Cure is the removal of
the patient's symptoms.
14. Information on the
medicinal action of medicines is derived solely from provings.
15. The only
classification of diseases taught by Hahnemann is acute and chronic.
Answer: All the
above statements are FALSE!
And yet, they are
commonly taught as being the basis of homeopathy and of Hahnemann's
system of remediation. To unravel the history of confusion and
misunderstanding regarding the genius of Samuel Hahnemann will take
some effort on your, the reader's, part.
First, we will
quickly examine each of the statements and then we will undertake a
more detailed exploration of the evidence for our conclusions.
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1. Homeopathy is the
name of the system of restoration to health that Dr.
Samuel Hahnemann created over 200 years ago.
Dr. Hahnemann named his
system of cure and healing Heilkunst, or the art of
making a person whole (remedial art). His main work is
called the Organon der Heilkunst. The true physician, or
Heilkunstler, is one who can apply the principles of
this system against disease in order to restore the sick
to health. Homeopathy is the medical part of his
remedial art, directed against natural disease, but this
system also involves diet and regimen, iatrogenic
diseases, psychotherapy, hydrotherapy, and energy work
(mesmerism). |
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2.
Hahnemann was a vitalist, teaching about the vital
force.
Vitalism is the opposite pole of materialism. Each tends
to reject the other. This is a false dualism from which
Western philosophy has long suffered. Hahnemann was a
functionalist and dynamist. His system is built on
dynamic dualities, such as body and soul, Geist
and Wesen, pathic and tonic, which are
dynamically interacting opposites creating living
functions. Hahnemann spoke of the Life Force (Lebenskraft),
which itself is the executive power in the organism of
the more primordial Living Principle or Dynamis.
This is not an abstract notion, as is the vital force,
but a power that can be discerned by the Heilkunstler,
measured and applied very concretely. A Dynamist is one
who uses his own Life Force in order to "know." Vitalism,
in contrast, is a philosophical system based on
postulation, not participation. |
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3. Hahnemann taught
that a remedy must be selected on the basis of the
totality of symptoms.
Hahnemann taught that a
remedy with a pathic relation to the case must be
selected on the basis of the totality of characteristic
symptoms of a given natural disease. |
| 4. In each case
of disease, the symptoms used to choose the remedy are
the presenting symptoms of the patient.
The symptoms used to
choose the remedy for the disease are the presenting
symptoms of the disease. Only if one is choosing a
constitutional remedy does one take the characteristic
features of the patient into account. |
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5. Hahnemann never
used more than one remedy at a time.
The historical record
shows that Hahnemann did use two remedies at one time
and did alternate remedies in quick succession, giving
one before the action of the other had been completed. |
| 6. The use of
more than one remedy at a time per patient is forbidden
in the Organon.
Hahnemann's writings on
this matter show that there is to be only one remedy at
a time per disease. A person can have more than one
disease at a time. The single remedy must be understood
in the context of Hahnemann's conception of disease. It
is the disease that determines the remedy. |
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7. Homeopathy
treats the patient, not the disease.
The remedy is given to destroy the disease. It is true
that the patient suffers the disease, but it is the
disease to which the remedy is directed, not the
patient. The disease entity (Wesen) engenders itself
within the Living Power of the human Wesen and it is the
resultant "issue," or offspring that must be aborted by
the remedy on the basis of the law of similar resonance. |
| 8. The goal of
homeopathy is to find the one remedy ("simillimum") that
will cure the whole case.
The goal of the
application of the law of similar resonance is to find
the right remedy for a given disease. If one has more
than one disease (concurrently or successively), this
will necessitate more than one remedy. |
| 9. Nosodes
should only be used on the basis of the presenting
symptoms or when the well-indicated remedy has failed.
Nosodes are remedies that
relate to the pathogenic dimension of disease (acute and
chronic miasms) and can be given on the basis of a
proven relationship to a given pathogen. They can also
be given on the basis of the presenting symptoms (pathic
dimension) in acute situations. |
| 10. Hahnemann
condemned the use of isopathic remedies.
Hahnemann condemned the
material application of the isopathic relationship
because of its dangers. He did not condemn the use of
isopathic remedies, that is, remedies made from diseased
matter or drugs, himself having used a form of
Psorinum. |
| 11. The basis of
Hahnemann's system is constitutional prescribing.
The constitution is the
organism in a state of health. Hahnemann was concerned
with the treatment of disease. He did not prescribe on
the basis of the constitution, but took the constitution
into account in terms of assessing the vitality of the
patient for dosage. It was Kent who introduced and
popularized the concept of constitutional prescribing
based on a confused equation of the disease to the
patient. |
| 12.
Constitutional prescribing will cure the patient,
including the chronic miasms.
A remedy given on the
basis of a person's constitution cannot cure anything.
The constitution is the person in a state of health.
There can be greater or lesser deviations from this
state producing symptoms, but this is not disease. A
remedy chosen on the basis of one's constitution can
only re-balance the constitution or reinforce a person's
resistance to disease. It may cause symptoms to
disappear, but it cannot address disease that has
already engendered itself within the Living Power.
Health and disease involve different aspects of the Life
Force and remedies given on the basis of health cannot
affect that aspect of the Life Force involved in the
engenderment of disease. |
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13. Cure is the removal
of the patient's symptoms.
Cure is the removal of the
totality of the symptoms of the disease being treated in
the sense of the sufferings of the patient, those around
him, plus all occurrents, behaviour and circumstances,
along with the removal of the underlying disease process
itself. |
| 14. Information
on the medicinal action of medicines is derived solely
from provings.
Information can come
legitimately from both clinical experience and from
provings on healthy persons. |
| 15. The only
classification of diseases taught by Hahnemann is acute
and chronic.
Hahnemann had a much more
complex conception of disease than their temporal
classifications. He categorized them with respect to
origin (genesis) as well as to duration, among other
factors. |
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